Cochran on the Hot Seat in Mississippi

In the last weeks before today’s runoff election in Mississippi pitting Sen. Thad Cochran (R ) against tea party-backed challenger Chris McDaniel, eleventh-hour campaign contributions have poured in at a furious rate, matched only by the efforts of outside groups joining the fray.

Six-term incumbent Cochran saw more of the same institutional and big business support he has relied on throughout the already hard-fought race. Since the June 3 primary, Cochran has received at least $780,000 in new contributions, in part thanks to a fundraiser hosted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That one event rounded up at least $72,600 from the leadership PACs of fellow GOP senators.

In comparison, McDaniel, a state senator, has collected a relatively sparse $180,000 since the primary, but instead has benefited from some extraterritorial intervention. In the last week, outside groups spent about $900,000 in the race. While big chunks of that came from Cochran supporters — including $200,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, $120,000 from Mississippi Conservatives and $100,000 from Main Street Advocacy, which participated for the first time in this race — there were also a slew of first-time spenders among conservative outside groups, galvanized in part by the defeat on June 10 of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) by tea party-backed challenger Dave Brat.

Despite Cantor’s loss and full-throttle efforts by the Republican establishment to back Cochran, the last weeks of this race have amounted to an intensified version of its dynamic early on. Cochran, who has held the seat ever since another six-term veteran retired in 1978, had the incumbent’s advantage and fought hard to keep it. He has so far raised about $5.2 million, which is more than he’s collected in his last two races combined.

McDaniel has been largely favored by outside groups, which have spent a whopping $7.3 million to topple Cochran’s run for a seventh term; Club for Growth Action alone has spent more than $3.1 million to help McDaniel win. In comparison, his campaign has run on a relative pittance of about $1.7 million, but has had endorsements from Sarah Palin’s leadership PAC, SarahPAC and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)’s political nonprofit, Patriot Voices PAC.

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